Phoenix Rising

The year is 2102, welcome to a world drowned in chaos and nuclear fallout. Humankind lay dessicated, what remians of us are conserved in bio dome cities, driven into risk, governments and military crippeled. I'm just a man, I don't know anything of my past, but I know about my future, and the future of this planet that was once ours. A story about a clan that looked out for everyone, human...or not human. A clan willing to risk anything to ensure survival, with the best technology and tactics at their disposal. A clan, that saved me, and made me something I tought would never be possible, I am a member of Phoenix Rising, I am Alec Shard, this is my story, this is our Earth, and what remains of it.

9. Sentinel

(PR reservation lounge, 9:30pm, Sunday 13th august, 2102)

"Take a seat Alec" Mathias said, lying on his bed, it was a small single, with rugged blue sheets and a bean bag as a pillow. The room was dark and small. Mitchell closed the door behind him, and walked across the other side of the room, where there were two beds, for Mathias and Keegan, both had matching covers, and the walls were blue and grey, to the left of coming in was a huge television screen, it was at least 50", and was sitting on a small shelf supported by a 5 row drawer. Inside were several DVD's and video games. As Alec walked in, he walked up to the screen and leaned from the side, the width of it was thinner than paper, and the screen was transparent to the wall behind it, it turned on, and several viewings of channels were displayed, and some overlapped each other. Mathias spoke proudly. "Impressive isn't it? If you wanna see something really cool, take a step back. Alec stepped back, standing in front of the screen. "Now simply put out your arm in the air and clench your fingers slightly". Alec lifted his arm forward, doing everything as Mathias, looking like he was trying to grab an invisible bottle of beer. "Now swipe in a direction, anywhere you like".

Alec slided his arm sideways to the right, the first channel tab that was noticeably in front of the other camera displays swiped right, following his hand movements. Another 3 displays popped in a triangle formation. The one at the top was a video game menu, the name was hard to pick out, bottom left was a live match of a football game, well something like it. Alec took a closer look, he saw men and women, in heavy suits, jumping at incredible heights, and smashing themselves back down again, they were playing over a metal ball with a glowing blue core, and kicked it like it was useless leather. One team in red armor were passing it constantly, the blue core transitioned into a glowing purple, the other team, in blue were failing to intercept it. The ball was going round all the players, the core glowed yellow, then orange, then a magma red, then a eye piercing white. Alec stood there and watched, his eyes focused on the ball, as a player shot it at the goal, the ball hit the back of the metal netting, the white light faded out, and the ball imploded and blew up, launching the goal keeper, who was in some sort of bomb disposal suit high into the sky, who impacted with the ground, unconscious. "He's dead" Mathias spoke up. "Brutal sports develop easily in a brutal world, and people risk it for money to survive, if they are lucky enough to survive themselves".

Alec looked back at the TV, blood was piling under the body, he cringed and quickly swiped it away. Another screen popped up. It was luxury room, a huge bed in the middle, there was a woman sitting on it, but the angle perspective fooled him straight away. Alec stared at it for a while. "Whats this supposed to be?" Mathias was quiet and kept looking. The woman was bouncing up and down, and was moaning and grunting. Alec felt weird, he did not notice Mathias open expression. "Shit shit shit" he stuttered and rushed over to the TV screen, he swiped across it diagonally in panic, a circular button appeared in the center as he pressed his hand on it and the TV switched off. "That was nothing, ignore that" he dashed over to the two beds, where Keegan and Mitchell sat there laughing hysterically, Keegan almost falling off the bed. "Come over here Alec, we actually need to tell you something". Alec looked back at the TV, then walked over and sat on the left bed next to Mathias, Mitchell finished wiping tears, trying not to laugh and Keegan climbed back on the bed, the four calmed down and sat in a circle between the two beds.

Keegan was the first to speak. "So Alec, welcome to PR, me and Mathias here are brothers and roommates, PR adopted us because our parents could not afford to keep us, we still speak to them monthly, but not when we were kids, Mitchell was one of our first friends here as well, several years ago, we had to take care of him since he was still in pain and emotional stress". "Oh cool, nice to meet you guys, so what it is you want to tell me about?" Mathias spoke up."This is actually a story, every PR member must be aware of this, and treasure it in their pride"."Ok gotcha, Alec sat back, getting comfortable while Keegan leaned forward.

"A very long time ago, in the 2050's, a world as we knew it, drowned in chaos and turmoil, buried under the suffering, painted over by the remorse, stepped on by the unforgivable. All of evil made its uprising, but not all evil. Before Phoenix Rising, there was.......the Sentinels. The Sentinel Knights"."Sentinel Knights?" Spoke Alec. "Back in the 2030's, the skruall race was first encountered, they were not deemed a threat to mankind in anyway, but they were targeted for their alien technology. They took up too much space on the planet, riots up roared from the citizens for them to leave. Nobody knows how they first reached here, but what they didn't know was that skruall originated from Earth millions of years ago, in the early ages of life. They already adapted and learned beyond human intelligence. They even foresaw the extinction of dinosaurs, they had visions of huge meteor wiping them out. Using their high knowledge and tactics, they built massive mechanical phoenixes, they chose this shape because observing the aviation wildlife during their times on Earth inspired to choose such a majestic and primal creature......and a great war machine. They buried these phoenixes, or in their language "Wylversuliin" and stayed inside them, to survive the apocalypse . At that time, one buried was claimed to have housed a deadly virus, a sentinel living race that inhabited and reproduced from living things that could overthrow entire planets, but that still lies a myth.""And what about Sentinels?"

"Alec, after the extinction of dinosaurs, several skruall left the planet, hoping to find another planet, safe and fresh, while the others remained the protect Earth, and so around the world today, hundreds of hidden Wylversuliin are still yet to be found. In 2049, the first one was found, by a man called Dalton. Dalton was leader of a private army, but not the type you expect to kill anyone under government orders, since at the time, the world was being nuked. But thats when the US government jumped in, they offered handsomely for the Wylversuliin, Dalton and bis crew accepted, they received almost a billion dollars in reward for that giant mechanical dragon thing, happy to themselves and hopes that they have faith that the government will use it to help humankind. With so much money at their disposal, they invested high tech equipment. But the amount was so much, they quickly became one of the worlds greatest powers, each soldier was a super soldier. But later on in that same year, they discovered another Wylversuliin"."My turn to tell the story now" Mathias interrupted."Fine, go ahead".

"They were excited about selling it and recieivng another large sum of money, but thats when they discovered what the government has really been using them for. They were not saving countries and restoring mankind, they used it to crush rebellions, so they could maintain focus on skruall for experiments and technology. Angry and betrayed, Dalton kept the Phoenix, he named his clan Sentinel Knights since thats what the system inside the phoenix was called. and declared war against those who abuse the world and he vowed to protect it. Years later, Phoenix Rising was established, as a recruitment clan for the Sentinels. Together, both clans grew and fought against the military for years. Then Alec....thats when your father decided to join them. He was a young lad looking for honor and money back in 2073, throughout his years at PR, he was one of the best, Dalton even ranked him up to stand by his dying side at Sentinels""Did you know my fathers name?"

"Gideon Shard, that was his name, in Sentinels, he met a woman, who he fell in love with. Lara, I think her name was. In 2078, they married and she was pregnant with you later that year, March 27th, 2078. After giving birth, she decided to give up fighting, and her dream was to raise you to become the best warrior ever. One of Gideons best friends, Alan Blakeway, also wanted to join PR, but everyone thought he was crazy and disliked him, and he was rejected, by Dalton himself. Gideon tried reasoning with him, since Alan was the person he trusted more than anything else. Dalton had to explain to him how Alan's bipolar behavior and questionable mind could be unhealthy for Phoenix Risings ground force, and a waste of resources. Gideon agreed and talked to Alan alone, who felt betrayed and disappeared for years. And so, Sentinel focused on crushing anything that stood in their path. They're Wylversuliin was their most powerful weapon, and a sentinel class wylversuliin is the most rare and powerful of its kind"."Wait, there are different kinds?"

"Yes, the first class is a Minor, they are the smallest of them all, around 1-2 meters in wide in length and width, they're self conscious drones, that behave the way they watch birds of prey behave and adapt that behavior, but tamed ones are used as scouts or hit-and-run tactics. The next is a loader, they are 4-5 m in size, and are used as basic infantry, housing their own directed laser weaponry, and quite strong strong for their size, which makes them perfect for cargo ferries. The third is a Wyrm, these are much bigger, around 10-12 meters, the first one in order that can fly with its own metal wings, not fuel engines. Skruall have been known to ride them, and make them malicious warriors, very few humans have been known to ride them. The fourth is the Druid, they are slightly smaller than Wyrm's, but their purpose is not for battle, these are a rare kind, and they have a special laser that controls particles to elevate the replication speed of cell reproduction by 1730%, able to heal catastrophic wounds within minutes. The next two are very specific to each other, the Legate and the Battlewagon. They are pretty much the same, both 24m in size, huge wings, and exact same structure and shape. What separates the two is their arsenal. The Legate has a huge mane of red energy in huge spikes over its neck, and this transfers light mass through its system, you can see the light travel through its body in cables, like blood in a vein. And yes, its weapons include 3 lasers across each wing, and a soundwave it can rupture from its chest and can create a small earthquake. The Battlewagon does not have that, its just a metallic silver color, except for its eyes, all Wylversuliins have different eye colors, I never understood why. But the battlewagon is outfitted with Skruall manufactured rocket pods and live ammunition weapons, but Skruall ammunition are always created with a built in elemental effect, could be fire, acid, plasma, durtanium shrapnel, electricity and many more".

"The skruall really know how to handle themselves, are there any others?""Only the best, the Sentinel, at 72m in size, they are the most merciless war machines the planet ever had touching its surface. Their weaponry is classified, even for us, those who witnessed vowed to silence themselves from exposing secrets, in hopes of avoiding those who wish to research and copy, and make war machines of their own, but that never happened. Now back to the story". Mitchell interrupted. "Hey hey hey, you both had your turn, let me tell the rest". Mathias nodded and stayed quiet, as Mitchell leaned forward."So on September 27th, 2083, Dalton finally passed away, he passed his leadership to your father, who already knew what he was doing. He donned the Iconic Wylversuliin helmet, the leadership symbol, the most advanced and badass one throughout both clans. If you haven't already noticed, the banners and our official emblem is a phoenix, Sentinel Knights are recognized with the wylversuliin emblem". Alec raised his voice."Whats the difference?""You'll see a difference, the day you see a Sentinel class, which probably might never happen".

"But anyway, 3 months later into December, that was when things changed. Sentinels had the military in their grasp, then Alan returned....with an army of his own. He declared himself leader of BPTF (Blakeway Private Task Force) and a huge battle commenced near the bottom of South America, a war that pushed from Chile across Argentina. He outnumbered the Sentinels, 2 to 1 with wylversuliins, the ground forces were decimated, the air support was minimal, Sentinels retreated across the pacific and were never heard of again. Many were captured alive, including your father, Alan was rumored to have fulfilled his justice with him". Alec was quiet, he felt his anger induce him internally. "Keep it calm Alec, keep it together". His voices inside his head forcefully suppressed his feelings. "Your mother was captured as well, they were never heard of again, presumably dead, I'm sorry Alec". Alec looked at Mitchell, he saw the expression on his face, he knew he was certain that what he was saying is wrong, because he had something important within him; hope.

"Sentinel were never seen from again, they fled into places around Asia, maybe some of the mountain ranges, where they can never be found, its shocking to witness to the fact, the more powerful an empire, the more quicker a downfall, but with Alan's intentions, he seems to be proving that statement wrong. Us, for the record, at the time we fought, but us too fled, we remained here, our last resort, while he went back to have his ass kissed at New London for the next decade. One day, we hope that we may claim back what is ours, to this dying day, Sentinels will rise again, and Phoenix Rising will be its predecessors, and the world shall acknowledge our prowess!" Mitchell shouted in a battle cry, standing from his spot on the bed, everyone looked at him in silence. "Calm down Mitchell, our day will come, and with Alec by our side, we sure ain't gonna lose"."I'm not that good, when do I start getting all the fancy stuff everybody else has?"

Mitchell stood up, he walked from the bed, exiting the room, shouting down the hallway. "Go to New London first, do everything Barret said, then come back, your training begins!" Mathias and Keegan followed him out, Keegan stuffed his face into of he lockers on the side of the wall, before following Mathias out. Alec sat there alone, thinking to himself. "All this stuff I never knew about, what if Sentinels are still out there? What if my father was still with them? And what about my mother? Nobody ever talks about her, why am I even here? I don't know who is the good side, Phanix, or these guys, they seem confident and persistent, and that story they told me sounds very familiar. I guess I should do what they say, its the only way to find out".